We had lived in our house for over 17 years. I had been a single mom and raised 3 kids there. Through the years we’ve had roommates, rented out the back apartment, all to make the house payments. When I moved into the house I really had not wanted it. Fresh from a divorce, the last thing I wanted to contend with was a big house with a big yard that needed taken care of, and a big payment. I was just starting my own real estate business after separating from my husband and leaving our real estate business and it’s customers with him.

My partner at the time, and a partner whom I would do business with for several years to come talked me into going in partners on the house. The yard work would be taken care of, there would be a few of us to make the payment, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I finally gave in and became part owner in a great piece of real estate, in a good location, in a good school district. Sounds like life should be perfect!

I’ll save you all the trials and tribulations through the years, but suffice it to say in 2004 the partner I had signed one of those terrible, subprime loans. He fell for his own trap that people only care about “how much down, how much a month” evidently, because for whatever reason he didn’t read what he was signing and took a loan that had the right to jump from 4% to whatever the market was after the first year. While the treasury bills were going down here and people’s interest rates were going down, the LIBOR that our loan was tied to was going up. Our interest rate adjusted every 6 months and adjusted 2% per year. From 2004 to the end of 2007 our payment jumped from $2100.+ to $4400.00 per month.

On December 9, 2008 the house went up for sale on the courthouse steps. Even though the partner was fighting it as an illegal foreclosure, Wells Fargo had bullied right through the sale process and took it back that day. The next day the Sheriff was at the door with a notice to vacate (an eviction notice). We had lost the house and had only a certain amount of time to get out unless I filed papers with the court within 5 days of getting served.

I filed the papers, went to court against a Wells Fargo attorney and lost my case. Immediately the next day I filed a “Stay of Eviction” that gave us 40 days to leave the property, which I had to pay rental value to the court up front. We were scheduled to be locked out on 5/18/2009. That day was a Monday. As it turns out, due to budget cuts, the Sheriff’s office only does “lock-outs on Tues., Wed. and Thurs. in our area, so we had an extra day. We left the nite before as the BF didn’t want the humiliation of being escorted out. As it turned out the Sheriff didn’t show up until May 20th, which equated to 2 nights paying for a motel that we wouldn’t have had to, had we known.

This blog starts with where we are today. I will fill in bits and pieces of what we’ve gone through since we left our house as I go. If you have any questions about the foreclosure process, or want to tell your story, you can either feel free to comment or email me directly.